Long Beach's Etem out to be the best

Taylor Hall and Tyler Seguin will be the focus Friday night at the NHL entry draft comes to Southern California for the first time.

The two top junior stars aren't exactly names that sit on the tongues of the sporting populace unless you take a trip north of the border where there's plenty of conversation on which one is going to be called up to the podium first at Staples Center.

But there's one rising local player set on being the name to remember from the two-day festivities in downtown Los Angeles.

Emerson Etem.

It will be a household name in time if it's up to him. There is a plan that he has in place and it is not limited to being among the names called in the first round.

“It's not so much being a first-round pick,” Etem said. “It's about five years from now. Who the best player is coming out of this draft? That's what I want to be. The best guy coming out of this draft.”

Confidence clearly isn't something Etem lacks. Poised and mature beyond his 18 years, the born-and-raised native of Long Beach has done whatever he could to make himself into a top prospect that can put California further on the hockey map.

This could be a big weekend in that regard. Beau Bennett (Gardena), Taylor Aronson (Placentia), Jason Zucker (Newport Beach) and Jacob Fallon (Riverside) are among those that figure to be drafted.

But Etem could supplant Rancho Santa Margarita native Jonathon Blum as the highest drafted Californian and he could stay home. Blum was taken 23rd overall by Nashville in 2007 but the Ducks – who have the 12th pick – are among the teams looking at the driven Etem.

If it wasn't leaving home and the comforts of the local youth programs at the age of 14 for noted Minnesota prep school Shattuck St. Mary's, it was spending a year in the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based U.S. National Team Developmental Program.

And while the option was there to stay in Michigan, Etem saw the need to further challenge himself in the Western Hockey League by joining the Medicine Hat Tigers and perform in a 72-game schedule with heavy travel that's more like the NHL.

“It's obviously a pretty difficult decision,” he said. “One of the toughest I've ever made. I just felt that it's a part of my game that I need to work on. The physicality. Being more gritty. For me, it was a no-brainer going there.”

The transition to the WHL was seamless. The 6-foot, 195-pound wing had 37 goals to not only finish second on his team but also lead all first-year players in the league. Etem had 65 points overall.

“The reason he had so much success was mentally he was ready to play,” Medicine Hat coach Willie Desjardins said. “He respected our league. He knew what it would take and I think he was ready. He doesn't want to be an average player.”

Etem's penchant for scoring goals off the rush or in front of the net has moved him up the draft board but it is his skating and ability to make plays at top speed that has landed him as a possible top-15 choice.

NHL Central Scouting lists Etem as its eighth-ranked North American skater in its final pre-draft rankings. E.J. McGuire, the league's scouting director, compared his skill set to that of former Edmonton Oilers sniper Glenn Anderson.

“When people remember Glenn Anderson, they saw how he was flying down the wing with the puck on his stick,” McGuire said. “It's sort of a visual example of what we're talking about when we talk about that quality in Emerson Etem.

“To be in the top 10 among the thousands and thousands of kids we see is quite a compliment. He's right in the ballpark and on any given team's list he could be higher or he could be lower.”

Said Etem: “I think I'm that type of caliber player. To hear my name called that early would be really special. “It'd be a huge honor.”

That laser-like focus on hockey revealed itself early in a household full of athletes. Where his parents, Rick and Patricia, were accomplished rowers and his siblings, Martin and Elise, are following in their footsteps on the water, Emerson took to the frozen kind and immersed himself in the sport.

As a child, Etem was reading about the history of the NHL. Now it is pouring through countless hours of videos as he studies how current stars like Jarome Iginla or Marian Gaborik regularly put the puck in the net.

“He drew pictures all the time,” Patricia said. “Stadiums. Really elaborate. He would embellish them. So you knew that was in his heart. And it was in his imagination all the time.

“After seeing that, I saw this is him. This is who this kid really is.”

Etem can also become one of the few first-round picks of African-American heritage just as his mother was a trailblazer of sorts as a two-time U.S. Olympian and one of the few black women to ever row on the national team.

It is a facet of his life that carries a certain amount of importance. Etem looks to divergent examples for admiration, whether it's Willie O'Ree, the NHL's first black player, or current Kings winger Wayne Simmonds.

“Obviously there's not a lot of diversity really in hockey,” he said. “Willie O'Ree is setting a good example for how the game is changing and how it should change and his vision of what the NHL should be like. I think I'm part of that vision.

“It's something I'm looking to do in the future. It's important for me for sure.”

About 100 or so friends and family members will be at Staples Center to see the realization of a dream that started when he was on roller blades at a YMCA near Long Beach State. And while he now has a support system around him, Patricia Etem said her son has been the one that's “really been in the driver's seat.”

The days of working out with Malibu-based fitness trainer T.R. Goodman for the last few summers or moving about to maximize his talents are about to pay off.

“I see what everyone's projecting me at and that's to go back and play juniors again next year but my goal is to play in the NHL next year,” Etem said. “I'm prepared to do that.”

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